488 Birds of Colorado 



breast piore white, becoming rusty rufous on the abdomen ; iris brown, 

 bill pale homy, legs dark brown. Length 50 ; wing 2-3 ; tail 2-10 ; 

 culmen -80 ; tarsvis -70. 



The sexes are alike ; young birds have fewer white spots on the 

 upper-parts, but are more coarsely vermiculated with dusky. 



Distribution. — The arid districts of western United States from 

 Colorado to Nevada and south-eastern California ; the Wyoming 

 record appears to be based on a confusion between the two portions of 

 the paper by Holden and Aiken, in the 15th vol. of the Proceedings of 

 the Boston Society of Natural History, in which Holden's notes refer 

 to Wyoming and Aiken's to Colorado. 



In Colorado the Caiion-Wren is a resident throughout the year and 

 a somewhat uncommon bird, though probably often overlooked. It is 

 most common along the eastern foothills, hardly extending upwards 

 beyond an elevation of 8,000 feet ; it has been taken out on the arid 

 plains near Cheyenne Wells, only eighteen miles from the Kansas 

 border, in November, by Warren (07), but this appears to be exceptional. 

 It is not uncommon near Colorado Springs, having been first recorded 

 from this neighbom-hood by Allen, who fovmd it frequenting the roclcs 

 in the Garden of the Gods, where it is still to be seen and heard, while 

 Minot found a nest near Manitou close by, and !Miss Miller watched it 

 in south Cheyenne Canon. Other records are : Trilby, near Fort 

 Collins, June (Markman), Longmont, October 20th (Burnett), Boulder, 

 October to January (Betts), Golden, February 22nd and October lOtli 

 (Test), Wet Movmtains, up to 8,000 feet (Lowe), Irwin's Ranch, Las 

 Animas co.. May 1st (Warren), Gaume's Ranch, November (Cary,) 

 and on the western slopes-^twenty mUes east of Rangeley, September 

 fCary ), Glenwood Springs in winter (Cooke), Grand Jvmction, March 3rd 

 (Smith apud Rockwell), and Fort Lewis, La Plata eo. (Gilman). 



Habits. — ^The favourite haunt of the Canon- Wren is 

 among the crevices in perpendicular masses of rock and 

 chffs ; here it may be more frequently heard than seen, 

 since its notes are exceedingly characteristic and once 

 listened to can never be forgotten. Beginning with a 

 high note, which is often twice repeated, it descends 

 in chromatic scale for seven or eight notes, each dis- 

 tinctly marked and clearly and somewhat shrilly given 

 out in a series of detached whistles. It is very quick 

 in its movements and seldom still, flying up and down 

 the perpendicular faces of the great rocks and creeping 

 about among the crevices, and even clinging to the over- 



